Judges 15 - Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)

15 After a number of days, during the wheat harvest, Samson came to visit his wife and brought a kid goat with him. He said, “Let me go in to my wife’s room,” but her father did not let him go in.

2 Her father said, “I was so convinced that you hated her that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister better than she is? Please take her for yourself instead of her older sister.”

3 Samson said to them, “I am not responsible for the harm I am about to do to the Philistines.” 4 Then Samson went and captured three hundred foxes,[a] took torches, tied the foxes tail to tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. 5 He set fire to the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up sheaves of grain, the standing grain, the vineyards, and the olive groves.

6 The Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “Samson, the son-in-law of the man from Timnah, did it, because the man took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death.

7 At that, Samson said to them, “Since you would do something like this, I will take revenge on you. Then I will stop.” 8 He ripped them to pieces[b] in a devastating attack. Then he went down and stayed in the cleft in the Rock of Etam.

9 Meanwhile the Philistines went up, set up camp in Judah, and occupied the territory around Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?”

They said, “We have come up to tie up Samson—to do to him as he did to us.”

11 So three thousand men from Judah went down to the cleft in the Rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines are now ruling over us? So what is this you have done to us?”

Samson answered them, “As they did to me, so I did to them.”

12 They said to him, “We have come down to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”

13 They said to him, “We will not. We will indeed tie you up and hand you over to them, but we will not kill you.” Then they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When Samson came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting a war cry. But then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson, and the ropes around his shoulders were like flax charred by fire, and the ropes melted off his wrists. 15 Samson found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, and took it. With it he struck down a thousand men.

16 Samson said:

With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps![c]

With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.

17 When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand, and he named the place Ramath Lehi.[d]

18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord, “You placed this great victory into the hand of your servant. Shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God split the hollow that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank, his vitality was restored, and he was revived. For this reason he called the place En Hakkore,[e] which remains in Lehi to this day.

20 Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Footnotes

  1. Judges 15:4 Or jackals
  2. Judges 15:8 Literally he struck them leg upon thigh
  3. Judges 15:16 The Hebrew words for donkey and heaps sound alike.
  4. Judges 15:17 That is, Jawbone Heights
  5. Judges 15:19 That is, Spring of the One Who Called

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15 And it cometh to pass, after [some] days, in the days of wheat-harvest, that Samson looketh after his wife, with a kid of the goats, and saith, `I go in unto my wife, to the inner chamber;' and her father hath not permitted him to go in, 2 and her father saith, I certainly said, that thou didst c...
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Judges 15 - Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

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Judges 15 - World English Bible (WEB)

15 But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat. He said, “I will go in to my wife’s room.”But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I most certainly thought that you utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t...
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Judges 15 - The Voice (VOICE)

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Judges 15 - Tree of Life Version (TLV)

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Judges 15 - Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

Samson Defeats the Philistines15 After a while, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a kid; and he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her; so I gave ...
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Judges 15 - Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Samson Defeats the Philistines15 After a while, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a kid; and he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her; so I gave ...
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Judges 15 - New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

Samson Defeats the Philistines15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, “I want to go into my wife’s room.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I was sure that you had rejected her; so I gave her to...
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Judges 15 - New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA)

Samson Defeats the Philistines15 After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, ‘I want to go into my wife’s room.’ But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 Her father said, ‘I was sure that you had rejected her; so I gave her to...
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Judges 15 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

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Judges 15 - New Living Translation (NLT)

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines15 Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a present to his wife. He said, “I’m going into my wife’s room to sleep with her,” but her father wouldn’t let him in. 2 “I truly thought you must hate her,” her father explained, “so I gave her i...
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Judges 15 - New Life Version (NLV)

Samson Wins over the Philistines15 But later Samson visited his wife during grain gathering time with a young goat. Samson said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him go in. 2 Her father said, “I thought you hated her. So I gave her to your friend. Is not her younger...
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Samson Defeats the Philistines15 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a (A)young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in. 2 Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly (...
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Samson’s vengeance on the Philistines15 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, ‘I’m going to my wife’s room.’ But her father would not let him go in. 2 ‘I was so sure you hated her,’ he said, ‘that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her...
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Judges 15 - New International Version (NIV)

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Judges 15 - New English Translation (NET)

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